Trees, Curses, and Other Romantic Things
by Kalcifier
Summary: Severa set out to make a name for herself by making the forest safe again. A cursed girl was not on her agenda, but she'll help, she guesses. But only because that's what heroes are supposed to do.
1. A Quest!

Severa's mother was one of the most beloved heroes in a kingdom full of them. Everyone knew how the brave knight Cordelia had journeyed far and fought hard to save the prince, only to turn down his hand in favor of her partner and fellow knight. There were dozens of stories about the time she'd saved a village from a rogue wyvern without using a single weapon. And it was rare for bards to go a night without getting requests to sing of one of her battles against the Risen.

Frankly, Severa hated it. So her mother was disgustingly wonderful and talented and perfect. That was all very well if you didn't have to live with her, didn't have to eat her perfectly cooked food and wear her perfectly maintained clothes. Severa was constantly surrounded by reminders that she'd never be able to live up to her mother in anything.

Her family was no help, of course. Her mom was still infatuated, replying to Severa's complaints with a dreamy "I know." She'd snapped out of it and tried to comfort Severa with some sort of vague platitude, but by that point Severa had stopped paying attention because ew. She did not want to think about her parents' love life, thank you.

Cynthia had been less gross but no more helpful; she took the stories as a challenge to live up to. Her advice was to follow in their footsteps and become a heroic pegasus knight herself. As far as Severa was concerned, that was missing the point entirely. She didn't want to be compared to her mother even if she did somehow live up to those standards.

She didn't bother talking to her mother about it. Gawds, could you imagine? Even if she managed not to die of embarrassment, her mother would just say something stupid about her being perfect in her own way. Severa wasn't an idiot. She knew that just meant being less good.

There was only one way to get people to see her as a disappointing substitute for her mother. She would have to undertake a quest, something big enough to make her famous in her own right. Something that would overshadow anything her mother had done, while being different enough to avoid any comparisons. It wasn't like that was a huge loss; the pegasi didn't like her, and frankly the feeling was mutual.

Instead, she worked on her swordsmanship. She had to teach herself, but she thought she was getting pretty good. She wasn't hero level yet, but she could hold her own. The songs could always exaggerate her skill after the fact.

When she wasn't training, she was planning. She'd heard stories about a forest that people went into and never returned from, and that sounded like a good place to start. The trees would be too dense to let a pegasus through, but they'd be perfect for a swordswoman on foot. All she had to do was find a mysterious evil and get rid of it, then make people understand that she was the one who'd done it. How hard could it be?

When she felt she was as ready as she was going to be, she brought the idea up with her parents. Surprisingly, they didn't try to stop her. They just made sure that she understood what she was doing, and that she had enough supplies. She couldn't blame them for wanting to get rid of her, honestly.

It was agreed that she'd set out the day after her sixteenth birthday. Sixteen was an auspicious age for questing, and this way she would get a day of people doting on her before she left. In practice, it meant that her birthday presents were mostly questing supplies, but whatever. At least she was guaranteed to use those, as opposed to whatever hideous clothing Lucina would send this year.

The day of her departure, Severa left with her head held high and her sword strapped to her waist. She didn't expect any trouble until she got closer to the forest, but it would just be pathetic to die less than a mile from her parents' house. Her family gathered to see her off, her sister waving until she was out of sight.

Severa kept walking until she was sure her house was out of eyeshot, then stopped under the nearest tree. Drama was one thing, and she knew very well the impact of a good exit, but she had no idea where she was going. She'd meant to check yesterday, but people kept distracting her to say goodbye. The whole thing had felt disturbingly final, which had not helped her preparations.

Once she'd finally gotten her bearings, no thanks to her stupid confusing map, she set out in earnest. As she'd hoped, the forest wasn't too far from her house. There was a road that lead straight to it, in fact. The hardest part of the trip was putting up with the tedium of walking in a straight line for hours. Finally she had a use for all the time spent listening to Cynthia's ridiculous speeches: she was able to tune out of her surroundings fairly easily.

She made it to the forest's edge just before sunset. It was remarkably pretty for a death trap, she thought. Then again, after hours on the road she was thankful for anything other than flat dirt. She wouldn't be able to go in until the morning, but at least she was right there.

She made her camp a few yards away from the forest. No point in tempting fate, after all. It wasn't like she was scared or anything; it was strictly a logical decision. She ate her supper quickly, careful not to waste too much food, and then went straight to bed. She was tired from all the walking, and had absolutely no time to think about how alone she was before she fell asleep. She didn't think about the fact that this was her first night away from her parents at all.

The next morning came far too quickly, despite her early bedtime. Severa had never been a huge fan of mornings even when she had a comfortable bed to sleep on. She ate breakfast and broke camp mechanically, and entered the forest still yawning. Her lingering grogginess meant that she almost didn't notice the Risen until she walked into them.

The first one lunged at her from the front, and she didn't have time to think before she was halfway through cutting off its head. It was messier than she'd expected, and she had to pause to let her brain catch up with her surroundings. A hand grabbed her from behind, and she was whirling to face it when -

"Blood and thunder!" a voice yelled. The Risen holding her topped over, apparently from an arrow to its forehead.

"Ugh, I totally had that, you know," Severa said, dropping out of her combat stance. "You didn't have to interfere."

She turned to where the voice seemed to have come from. Standing a few feet away was a girl with dark grey eyes. She wore a headband with a single feather, and Severa could see right through her.

Despite what a certain someone might say, Severa definitely did not scream.


	2. A Ghost?

This was just Severa's luck: barely an hour into her quest and she had already been attacked by Risen and saved by a ghost.

A... remarkably nervous looking ghost, actually. The girl was practically shaking. What did a dead girl even have to worry about? She'd been powerful enough to take down the Risen, and it's not like she could die any more than she already had.

Severa watched the ghost's face for a moment longer before realizing that neither of them had said anything for at least a minute, and the silence was rapidly growing awkward. "Grind me into dust," she muttered. "So, what, you wanted to kill me yourself? Because let me tell you, I'm not going to make it easy for you."

The ghost started. "Oh, no, I just wanted to talk to you. ...Sorry?"

Severa sighed loudly. The ghost seemed to assume it was directed at her, which, good, it definitely was. "You could have waited, you know. I would have killed that thing in no time." The ghost looked almost disappointed, and Severa found herself rushing to add, "Whatever, it's fine. So, who are you, anyway? Did you, like, die in the forest or something?"

"No, nothing like that! I'm not actually dead, it's just a curse my mother put on me..." the not-ghost said. Severa made a face, and the other girl shook her head. "Okay, that makes it sound bad. It's just that my mother's a powerful sorceress, and I'm... not. So when one of her enemies decided that attacking her would be too hard, they went after me instead. They cursed me with some kind of wasting sickness...

"My mother couldn't do anything to lift the curse, so she put a new one on me to keep it from getting worse. It draws on the forest's energy to stabilize me, so my body can't actually move, but I can sort of project myself? And that's how I'm talking to you now... yeah."

Severa shoved down her empathy. So the girl had a hard life, or claimed to. That didn't mean anything. She certainly didn't relate to any of it. All she wanted to know was whether she would have to kill a ghost. It didn't seem likely, given how pathetic the girl was, but just to be sure...

"That's great and all," she said, "but you still haven't answered my first question. Who are you?"

"Oh... I'm Noire," Noire said, fidgeting a little. Gawds, it was making Severa nervous just looking at her.

"Great. I'm Severa, and I'm the one who's going to make this forest safe for travelers. Or safer, at least. Anyway, I've got a quest to complete, so as fun as this has been I'm gonna keep moving. Good luck with that curse or whatever."

"Wait!" Noire yelled. Severa had only made it two steps, and huffed in annoyance at being stopped so soon. Noire floated over until they were face to face. "So, I was thinking that, since hovering around a forest alone was kind of boring... Maybe I could come with you? I promise I won't be a bother, and you saw the way I killed that Risen!"

Severa resolutely did not flush. She was never going to live that down, was she? "Fine, if you have to follow me I can't stop you," she said. "Just stay out of my way!"

She set off again, determined not to let Noire slow her down. After a moment, Noire followed silently.

Gradually, Severa began to relax again. As far as she knew, her mother had never broken a curse, so maybe running into this Noire girl was a good thing after all. At this rate she would surpass her mother in no time.

As if she knew what Severa was thinking, it was then that Noire chose to speak up and ruin Severa's moment of goodwill. "Um, do you know where we're going?"

"Excuse me for not being familiar with the evil deadly forest," Severa snapped. "I would have brought a map, but for some reason when no one comes out alive maps are hard to find."

Noire winced, but when she spoke her voice was remarkably firm. "I have been trapped here for a while, you know. If you tell me what we're looking for, I can probably take you there. If you want."

Severa resisted the urge to massage her temples. Noire had all the answers, didn't she? The worst part was how often she was right - Severa was ready to take an actual bath again, which meant figuring out what was wrong with the forest and fixing it as soon as possible so she could leave. "Great," she said, making no attempt at sincerity. "I don't suppose you lknow where and how I can make this place less evil?"

"I don't know about how," Noire said slowly, "but I might know where. The forest's energies are concentrated in one or two main places. We can go there and see if something looks out of place, I guess. Would that work for you?"

Severa waved a hand in the air. "Yeah, sure, let's do that," she said flatly. Then she frowned, unwilling to admit defeat so easily. "But if you're leading me into a trap I'm going to kick your butt, curse or no."

"I would never!" Noire said. She seemed shocked by the very notion. "This is the most fun I've had in ages!"

This was her idea of fun? Really? Severa was going to have to take her shopping some time.

Or not, because she didn't care. Besides, at this rate they were going to grow old and die surrounded by these freaking trees. "Just take me to these places you were talking about," she said.


End file.
